Thousands of scientists spend millions of hours discovering information that could change your life. If you knew about it. But you don't. Instead, it sits on shelves, gathering dust. Easy ways to be happier, healthier, more successful—it's all there. But it may as well not exist.

So, one day, David Niven decided to do something about it.

"I was working on my own academic research in the basement of the library and I looked down the row and as far as I could see, floor to ceiling, were research reports," says Niven, who was working at the time as a research fellow at Ohio State. "I realized the report I was working on would one day join them."

Two barriers made the research virtually inaccessible, he realized. The people who can use it never go to the basement of the library, and if they did, they'd find most studies written in impenetrable jargon.

"If you don't address those two things then it's as if this information doesn't exist," he says. "That's the guiding principle of my books."

Niven's books are the "100 Simple Secrets" series, collections of research from thousands of scientific studies boiled down into useful, easily understood information you can use to improve your life. The bestsellers are available around the world in 30 different languages. We reached Niven at his office in Ohio.

Finish this sentence: Information is...
Information is everywhere but not necessarily in the places you need it or in the way you can use it.

What about in the future? Will information change?
In the seven or eight years I've been writing, there's been a tremendous change in people's access to information. What hasn't changed is their access to information that's digestible.

When you write a book you must go through a ton of information. How do you do it?
The starting point is a massive search through a mountain of research studies. Then I look for areas where this information is applicable to people's lives. It's one thing to say a trait affects happiness, it's another to say it's a trait people can do something about.

Are people getting better or worse at handling information?
The average person is better with information that excites them. Sports fans are vastly better than they were 10 years ago at accessing what's happening with their favorite team. For information that might actually be useful in our larger life, I don't know that we're doing as well. You wrote a book called "The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People."

Can the right information make people happier?
Absolutely. Our life satisfaction is not something we're born with. It's a function of our habits and those habits can be informed by information. There are ridiculously significant effects of minor changes in life. A bit less TV and a bit more music has a significant positive effect on happiness.

What makes an intelligent person? Is it the amount of information or how you deal with it?
How you deal with it. I remember reading about the defense of the vice president's aide, Scooter Libby. One of the things that was said at his sentencing hearing was, "He had access to so much information, you couldn't expect him to remember it." Well, there was not much value to that information if he couldn't remember it.

Do people get intimidated by information?
Definitely. But in my experience, everybody will take the information if you present it to them. But they don't necessarily know it's out there. None of my readers would want to pick up a textbook and wade through it.

You've heard the saying, "too much information." Is there such a thing?
The research in psychology is very clear about the inability to make decisions because there's so much information out there. I've seen this among my friends who are trying to buy a TV. They can't buy a TV because there are so many reviews and the reviews differ. So they spend all their time searching for the definitive answer instead of just buying what would otherwise be an acceptable TV.